About a year ago I stopped making regular updates to this blog to concentrate on my Namnesia Antidote blog. While that is an ongoing effort, I am starting what should be about a year long effort to revitalize the concept of a "This Day in History" blog. I have decided to leave this blog intact and as-is, using a new "This Day in History 2.0" blog for my expanded and full version. Please feel free to email with your ideas. The two tables below should allow you to find a posting for the "Day in History" you wish to research.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Tolerance "It rests with the liberals and the tolerant to preserve our civilization. Everything of importance in this world has been accomplished by the free inquiring spirit and the preservation of that spirit is more important than any social system." — John L. Lewis

Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Killing Big Bird "I don't understand why they call it public broadcasting. As far as I am concerned, there's nothing public about it; it's an elitist {code word for an educated public that may figure out how the Republicans, the biggest elitists of all, are screwing them over} enterprise. Rush Limbaugh is public broadcasting." — Newt Gingrich, attacking the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Charlotte Observer, 3-10-96.

Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From the world of Sports "I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early." — Few sports figures—and indeed, few figures of any endeavor—have achieved the verbal notoriety of Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, former catcher of the New York Yankees. This is one of the indescribable utterances of Hall of Shame member #6.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

● 1933 - Angered by increasing farm foreclosures, members of Iowa's Farmers Holiday Association threaten to lynch banking representatives and law officials who institute foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Depression. In April at Primghar, 600 farmers battle the sheriff and his deputies to prevent a foreclosure. That same month, when state officers in Crawford County are beaten and driven off, the Iowa governor put three counties under martial law, and the National Guard starts rounding up farmers who are fighting foreclosures.

● 1944 - Danish playwright and priest Kaj Munk is taken from his home and murdered by the occupying Gestapo. His outspoken sermons and plays called upon Danes to resist the Nazis, leading to his death.

● 1945 - In Raguse, Sicily, Maria Occhipinti, lies down in front of army trucks which come to find new young conscripts to incorporate into the new Italian army. Within minutes, a crowd surrounds the soldiers, forcing them to release their recruits, but kill a demonstrator and set off a major revolt. The city falls to the insurgents and resists governmental troops for three days, falling only after the death of many townspeople.

● 1948 - Burma regains its independence from the United Kingdom.

● 1951 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.

● 1955 - U.S. agrees to pay Japan two million dollars for damages resulting from atomic tests in Marshall Islands.

● 1958 - Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957).

● 1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

● 1965 - Sam Rayburn House Office Building, costing "more than the pyramids at Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon, and the Colossus of Rhodes," according to the New York Times, opens in Washington DC. The congressional bill authorizing its construction appropriated $2 million plus "such additional sums as may be necessary." "Such additional sums" eventually totaled $88 million, making the Rayburn Building, at the time, the most expensive public structure in the world. The record has since been surpassed by numerous sports stadiums.

● 1965 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.

● 1972 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.

● 1974 - United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

● 1979 - In an out-of-court settlement, $675,000 is awarded to the victims of the Kent State University shootings of 1970.

● 1980 - Citing "an extremely serious threat to peace," President Carter announces a series of punitive measures against the U.S.S.R., most notably an embargo of grain and high technology and reinstitution of draft registration, in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This idiotic indoctrination of 18-year-olds continues today, long after the Soviets have departed Afghanistan and this world.

● 2007 - The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history. {Unfortunately, she goes on to prove that a lack of testes will ensure that the war criminal Bush is not subject to well deserved impeachment proceedings.}

● 2007 - Marais Viljoen, former State President of South Africa (b. 1915)

● 2007 - Osman Waqialla, Sudanese artist and calligrapher (b. 1925)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:● St. Abraham● St. Aquilinus● St. Dafrosa● St. Elizabeth Ann Seton● St. Ferreolus● St. Hermes● St. Libentius● St. Mavilus● St. Pharaildis● St. Rigobert● Bl. Angela of Foligno● Bl. Thomas Plumtree

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 22 (Civil Date: January 4)● Nativity Fast.● Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ● St. Great Martyr Anastasia, deliverer from bonds, and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them Martyrs Theodota, Evodias, Eutychianus, and others who suffered under Diocletian

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About Me

Life long Liberal. Actually saw JFK on campaign trail. Defining moment of my life was the assassination of JFK. First presidential election I participated in was knocking on doors for McGovern, have been tilting at windmills ever since.